fans in the bathroom


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Old 01-04-06, 10:32 AM
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Question fans in the bathroom

My wife and I just bought a home and all of the bathrooms have exhaust fans. Considering the way I can blow the place up after a chili dinner, we're grateful. However, the fans automatically come on when you flip the switch for the light. How easy will it be to connect the fan to a separate switch, so that I can choose whether or not I use the fan? Any help would be appreciated, even if you can direct me to a site that has the direction.

Thanks for your help!
 
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Old 01-04-06, 10:48 AM
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You may have to replace the cable that runs from the switch to the light. Open the switch box and tell us ALL the wires that exist in the box and how they are connected.
 
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Old 01-04-06, 05:07 PM
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To elaborate on Bobs reply,the 1st box to look into would be at the switch.As Bob said see how many wires are connected to the load side of the switch {there sholud be only 1 wire under each screw}There may be three wires connected with a wirenut with the 3rd wire {about 4" long,called pigtailing} going to the load screw on the switch.In this type of setup one black is for the vanity light the other is for the fan therefore seaparating them is easy.What you need to purchase is called a switch-over-switch.One side of this switch has screws for connecting the hot wire{s} & the other side has screw for connecting the loads.Its obvious by your username that you teach at Lasalle University, since I live in Philly also please feel free to e-mail me if you like
 
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Old 01-05-06, 10:10 AM
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Thanks for the help. I'll have to wait until we get into the house and I can actually look at the switches. I was hoping that someone would assume that the wiring was pig-tailed. Is it possible that the original builder might have wired it in another fashion? If I've got to trace the wiring to another box in the ceiling, I might just give up on the pure point that I don't have the skills to do much more than install a socket or switch to exisiting wiring.
 
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Old 01-05-06, 01:32 PM
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My house has two switches in the bathroom, one for light and one for fan. There have been many times with guests who use our bathroom that I have wished there was only one switch, even though we didn't serve chili. In other words, some people do not know to use the fan switch when they should, perhaps because their bathrooms only have windows and no fans. Just something to consider.
 
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Old 01-05-06, 02:22 PM
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Originally Posted by Tyger52
some people do not know to use the fan switch when they should, perhaps because their bathrooms only have windows and no fans. Just something to consider.
I know you can get a moisture sensor to automatically turn on the fan. An odor sensor or methane sensor cannot be far behind.
 
 

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